Hawks and Eagles in Denmark
An insight to their habitat and what effects conservation efforts have
Rakul Maria Hjalmarsdóttir Tórgarð
Introduction
The Danish Ornithology Community (Dansk Ornitologisk Forening, or DOF) was founded in 1906, with the goal of protecting birds and their habitats in Denmark. Over the years, DOF has played a crucial role in bird conservation efforts, including monitoring bird populations, advocating for environmental policies, and raising public awareness about the importance of biodiversity. Their work has been fundamental in understanding the trends and challenges faced by bird species in Denmark. DOF’s vision is primarily to protect wild birdlife in Denmark and improve their habitat, and to collect and inform knowledge of birds to the people.
One of the major things that DOF has done, is to allow people to register their own observations of birds via their website, DOFBasen.dk. This has had a huge impact on spreading the knowledge of bird species and their habitats across Denmark. By enabling citizens and volunteers to contribute their observations, DOF has created a rich dataset that provides valuable insights into bird populations and their trends over time.
Project Eagle and Project Montagu’s harrier
In extension to their work on bird conservation, DOF has for the past couple of years worked with various focus projects, two of them being Project Eagle and Project Montagu’s Harrier. The following sections will take a closer look at what impact these projects have had on the population of the bird species in these projects. The birds inspected in this sections are
From Project Eagle:
- The white-tailed eagle
- The golden eagle
- The osprey
From Project Montagu’s Harrier:
- The Montagu’s Harrier (surprise!)
The dataset used in the following sections contains all observation registered on DOFBasen.dk from 1998 - 2024 of these species [1].
But what do these birds look like?
Before diving into each bird species, let’s first take a look at each bird, to gain a better understanding of what we’re about to inspect.
But what do these birds look like?
Before diving into each bird species, let’s first take a look at each bird, to gain a better understanding of what we’re about to inspect.
White-tailed eagle
- The largest eagle in Denmark (And the whole of Europe!), with an average wing-span of 200-245 cm
- Greyish mid-brown colour overall, with a beak that goes from brown’ish to yellow as the bird ages
But what do these birds look like?
Before diving into each bird species, let’s first take a look at each bird, to gain a better understanding of what we’re about to inspect.
Golden eagle
- The second-largest eagle in Denmark, with an average wing-span of 190-227 cm
- Primarily lives off smaller birds and other mammals, such as mice
But what do these birds look like?
Before diving into each bird species, let’s first take a look at each bird, to gain a better understanding of what we’re about to inspect.
Osprey
- Quite characteristic with a white/grey underpart and brown upperpart
- Primarily lives off fish, which is why it’s also known as the Sea Hawk
But what do these birds look like?
Before diving into each bird species, let’s first take a look at each bird, to gain a better understanding of what we’re about to inspect.
Montagu’s Harrier
- Small bird of prey, with an average wing-span of 98-110 cm
- A quite rare migratory bird, which visits Denmark in summertime
Overall development
If we look at the overall development of these birds over time, it is clear that there has been one species who has shown remarkable success in expanding their population from 1998 - 2024; the white-tailed eagle.
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Recovering from extinction
The white-tailed eagle bred in Denmark until it was driven by extinct by persecution in 1912. After this it made a number of breeding attempts during the second half of the 20th century, unfortunately usually unsuccessful. It was clear that some action had to be taken, in order to reestablish the White-tailed eagle.
Inspired by similar projects run in Sweden and Germany, DOF initiated Project Eagle in 1991, hoping that this might ultimately lead to reestablishment of the population [2].
Conservation efforts and their positive effect
The project achieved to promote a positive attitude among Danes towards the eagles, which established themselves in Denmark from 1995 onwards. The first succesfull breeding attempt occoured in 1996 [2].
Although the species had a smaller drawback around the turn of the century, the overall development of the species has been upward.
Registered observations
With this successfull breeding attempt in 1996, an increase in the species population began to take effect.
The map on the right illustrates the development over time of the White-tailed eagle in Denmark. Initially a rare species, limited to a few specific regions, the White-tailed eagle has expanded significantly and is now widespread across the Danish landscape.
